Dialogues boost relations between major powers
- By Shen Dingli
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 23, 2015
The China-U.S. relationship is broad enough to allow for a handful of problems that arise because of differences in each other's development. But a country's legislation is part of its internal affairs, and as long as the aforementioned international agencies do not purposefully violate Chinese laws, there is no reason to worry.
Other problems reflect U.S. worries over what the future will look like with a stronger China. China's island expansion project is beneficial to China's national security and to neighboring countries by creating better access to public products and services. But the U.S. fears that China will inevitably seek hegemony in the South China Sea once it has a tighter grip of it, similar to the U.S. pursuit of global dominance now that has established itself as a "global superpower." However, the United States should not assume that the pursuit of hegemony will necessarily characterize other countries' rise, a fact that China has yet to prove to the world through its actions. This is why the annual China-U.S. dialogues seem quite important.
Washington also fears that Beijing's cyber security legislation may prevent U.S. information technology from entering China. However, Capitol Hill must be forgetting that U.S. legislation prevented Chinese information technology from entering the United States first. Conflicting attitudes in the U.S. and the U.S. government's baseless accusations that China hacked its data have put the country in an awkward position ahead of the dialogues' start.
One must acknowledge that the United States is making an effort to soften bilateral tensions. For example, the U.S. Department of State has made it clear that it is not taking sides on China's island expansion issue, and the Department of Defense has requested all countries in the South China Sea, including Vietnam and the Philippines, stop their island expansion projects.
U.S. officials recently said that the United States and China have no reason to fight, since the disputes over South China Sea do not essentially affect U.S.-China ties. The officials have also clearly stated that the United States will be persistent in avoiding conflicts with other countries, including China. Additionally, the United States has noted that both China and the United States are victims of cyber attacks.
The two governments signed the U.S.-China MOU on Air and Maritime Encounters last year, an agreement that applies to the open sea, but has yet to be expanded to cover exclusive economic zones. Therefore, the upcoming S&ED is a good opportunity to elaborate on this issue, among other topics.
This round of strategic and economic dialogues will therefore help form consensus and cooperation if both U.S. and Chinese delegation seize the opportunity.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.keyanhelp.cn/opinion/shendingli.htm
The article was written in Chinese and translated by Chen Boyuan.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn
